The transmission (i.e., sending and receiving) of service messages to and from a telecommunication device—such as a mobile telephone, a cordless telephone with a base station and at least one mobile unit, a fixed network telephone, a fax machine, a personal computer, etc.—is a communication service that is classified in relation to the information content transmitted with the messages, e.g. texts, multimedia content such as audio/video data (ring tones, screen savers), graphics, programs, etc. Because of the high level of acceptance, service messages have gradually become established in the fixed network area. Of the wide range of services offered in the mobile radio network—such as the Short Message (Messaging) Service (SMS), the Enhanced Message (Messaging) Service (EMS), the Multimedia Message (Messaging) Service (MMS), Instant Messaging, Over The Air Activation (OTA), email, etc.—the trend in the fixed network area is that SMS and MMS communication services will play a more major role. While the SMS service is already standardized both for the mobile radio area and for the fixed network area (for GSM: ETSI TS 100 942 V7.0.0, Release 1998; for ISDN/PSTN: ETSI ES 201 912 V1.1.1, Release January 2002), in the case of the MMS service the same only applies to the mobile radio area (see: 3GPP TS 22.140 V4.y.z; stage 1 and 2; release 4), while standardization activities are still ongoing at present in the fixed network area (see: ETSI DES/AT-030023 V0.1.0, November 2003).
The delivery of a multimedia message to a telecommunication device, whereby the multimedia message is transmitted to a multimedia message service center responsible for the delivery of the multimedia message to the telecommunication device and having an MMS relay/server and stored there and whereby the multimedia message service center sends a notification message, known as the multimedia message notification, to the telecommunication device, informing said telecommunication device of the stored message, is known from the publication 3GPP TS 23.140 V4.2.0, XX, XX, March 2001 (2001-03), pages 1 to 73, XP-002238091: “3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Terminals; Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS); Functional description; stage 2 (release 4).
The SMS service in the fixed and mobile networks is a point-to-point service, characterized by a pure push functionality—i.e. the content of the short message (SM), the length of which is maximum 160 bytes, is send by the short message service center (SMSC) to the telecommunication device and generally comprises text data—where establishment of the connection is typically prompted by the service center. While an SMS service in the mobile radio area operates in a connectionless manner between the telecommunication device and the short message service center (i.e., the short message is transmitted via a signaling channel without a traffic channel connection being setup), in the fixed network the SMS service operates in a connection-oriented manner (i.e., a traffic channel connection is established between the telecommunication device and the short message service center and the short message is transmitted using the service feature Calling Line Identification (CLI), referred to as Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP), by means of FSK and/or DTMF signaling (Frequency Shift Keying or Dual Tone Multiple Frequency).
In the case of an MMS service, which operates in the mobile radio network like the SMS service in a connectionless manner via a WAP transport path (use of the Wireless Application Protocol), in the fixed network another mechanism is brought to bear:
When a multimedia message (MM) is sent, the size of which is currently restricted to approx. 100 kBytes, and which could contain text, multimedia content such as audio/video data (ring tones, screen savers), graphics, programs, etc., in short text, audio and/or video data, a notification message known as the MMS notification is first sent to the telecommunication device, again in a connection-oriented manner, informing the telecommunication device that a multimedia message is present at the multimedia message service center (MMSC). This takes place by means of a push service, e.g. the SMS service. It is then necessary, unlike when receiving a short message, to initiate the setting up of a further connection from the telecommunication device to the multimedia message service center to receive the content of the multimedia message.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show this situation—the transmission of multimedia messages MM in the fixed network from a sender (send device) to a addressee (receive device), each of the devices generally only being registered with a single multimedia message service center MMSC, according to the prior art.
FIG. 1 illustrates a transmission of a multimedia message (MM) MMN in the fixed network FN from a send telecommunication device STKG to a receive telecommunication device ETKG, both devices being registered with one and the same multimedia message service center (MMSC) MMNDZ, which is assigned to the fixed network FN. “Assigned” here means that the multimedia message service center MMNDZ is either a component of the fixed network FN or is arranged outside the fixed network FN. The send telecommunication device STKG or receive telecommunication device ETKG is registered with the multimedia message service center MMNDZ by programming a receive and send number for the service center into the respective device. This is either done by preconfiguring the respective telecommunication device in the factory or by manual configuration by the user of the device or by a specific configuration message, which is transmitted once during installation of the MMS service, e.g. via the SMS service from the multimedia message service center MMNDZ to the send telecommunication device STKG or the receive telecommunication device ETKG and is loaded dynamically with the data required for the installation of the MMS service.
Transmission of the multimedia message MMN starts with the send telecommunication device STKG sending the multimedia message MMN intended for the receive telecommunication device ETKG via the fixed network FN to the multimedia message service center MMNDZ. In order to inform the receive telecommunication device ETKG that the multimedia message MMN, intended for the receive telecommunication device ETKG, has arrived in the multimedia message service center MMNDZ, the multimedia message service center MMNDZ sends a notification message MN to a short message service center (SMSC) KNDZ that is assigned to the fixed network FN as the carrier of information for the receive telecommunication device like the multimedia message service center MMNDZ. The short message service center KNDZ inserts the receive notification message MN into a short message (SM) KN and sends this short message KN with the incorporated notification message MN in the known manner via the fixed network FN to the receive telecommunication device ETKG. However, this requires the receive telecommunication device ETKG to be registered with the short message service center KNDZ. Registration with the short message service center KNDZ takes place in the same way as registration with the multimedia message service center MMNDZ.
Upon receipt of the notification message MN, the receive telecommunication device ETKG sets up a temporary telecommunication connection via the fixed network FN or a temporary Internet connection according to the TCP/IP protocol to the multimedia message service center MMNDZ, with which it is registered as mentioned above, in order to collect the multimedia message MMN stored there.
The fact that the receive telecommunication device ETKG—as already determined above—is generally only registered with a single multimedia message service center and short message service center respectively, means that the connection for collecting the multimedia message MMN can only be set up with the multimedia message center stored in each instance in the telecommunication device.
The multimedia message itself does not necessarily always have to be located on a data server (storage unit) of the multimedia message service center, with which the telecommunication device collecting the multimedia message is registered, but it can be located anywhere else on any data server, for example a data server of another multimedia message service center. This occurs whenever the send telecommunication device STKG is registered with another multimedia message service center as the sender of the multimedia message MMN, which is shown in FIG. 2.
Like FIG. 1, FIG. 2 shows the transmission of a multimedia message (MM) MMN in the fixed network FN from a send telecommunication device STKG to a receive telecommunication device ETKG, with, unlike in FIG. 1, both devices being registered with different multimedia message service centers (MMSC) MMNDZ, MMNDZ′, both of which are assigned to the fixed network. While the send telecommunication device STKG is registered with the multimedia message service center MMNDZ as in FIG. 1, the receive telecommunication service center ETKG is registered with a further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′.
“Assigned” here means that the multimedia message service center MMNDZ, MMNDZ′ is either a component of the fixed network FN or is arranged outside the fixed network FN. The send telecommunication device STKG or receive telecommunication device ETKG is registered with the multimedia message service center MMNDZ or the further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′ by programming a receive and send number for the service center into the respective device. This is either done by preconfiguring the respective telecommunication device in the factory or by manual configuration by the user of the device or by a specific configuration message, which is transmitted once during installation of the MMS service, e.g. via the SMS service from the multimedia message service center MMNDZ to the send telecommunication device STKG or from the further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′ to the receive telecommunication device ETKG and is loaded dynamically with the data required for the installation of the MMS service.
Transmission of the multimedia message MMN again starts with the send telecommunication device STKG sending the multimedia message MMN intended for the receive telecommunication device ETKG via the fixed network FN to the multimedia message service center MMNDZ. However, the multimedia message service center MMNDZ identifies that the addressed receive telecommunication device ETKG is not registered with it but with the further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′. It therefore sends information INF with the associated multimedia message MMN to the further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′. The further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′ receives this information and message, and subsequently sends a notification message MN, to inform the receive telecommunication device ETKG that it has received the multimedia message MMN intended for the receive telecommunication device ETKG from the multimedia message service center MMNDZ, to a short message service center (SMSC) KNDZ, that is assigned to the fixed network FN as the carrier of the information for the receive telecommunication device ETKG again like the two multimedia message service centers MMNDZ, MMNDZ′. The short message service center KNDZ again inserts the received notification message MN into a short message (SM) KN and sends this short message KN with the incorporated notification message MN in the known manner via the fixed network FN to the receive telecommunication device ETKG, which is again registered for this purpose with the short message service center KNDZ. Registration with the short message service center KNDZ takes place in the same way as registration with the further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′.
Upon receipt of the notification message MN, the receive telecommunication device ETKG sets up a temporary telecommunication connection via the fixed network FN or a temporary Internet connection using a TCP/IP protocol to the further multimedia message service center MMNDZ′, with which it is registered as mentioned above, in order to collect the multimedia message MMN received and stored there for collection.
FIG. 2 illustrates that the two multimedia message service centers have their own mechanisms to transmit the multimedia message from one service center to the other service center. As the fixed network operators of such service centers are often in competition with each other or are perhaps even in a different country, there are frequently no corresponding bilateral agreements between the operators so that in such a case it might not be possible to transmit the multimedia message at all.
In the mobile radio area this problem is typically resolved by pre-arranging agreements between the individual operators of multimedia service centers.
The competitive situation mentioned above currently exists in Germany regarding SMS services, in the fixed network area. To resolve these kinds of problems, the numbers of a plurality of short message service centers are stored in the telecommunication devices so that it is possible to receive short messages, even from [lacuna] at unlogged short message service centers. Receipt of a short message is generally not a problem, as the setting up of the connection is always prompted by the supplying short message service center.